Qualifications do matter

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 18

Qualifications do matter

Hairdressing Week will be observed throughout New Zealand from November 29 to December 5 to educate the public about hairdressing and, most of all, the importance of attending a professionally qualified hairdresser. The Guild of Profes- t sional Hairdressers will launch its logo. This will become the seal of the qualified professional, a symbol of quality, like the Woolmark. Since voluntary registration was introduced in 1985, 1000 of the 5000 qualified hairdressers employed in 2000 salons throughout New Zealand have registered. The New Zealand Council of Ladies’ Hairdressers’ Association will aim at a much stronger response both for the protection and status of the individual hair-

dresser and for the image of the profession. New Zealanders do not realise the qualifications and training which are demanded of a profes- i sional hairdresser, and I

the industry rightly feels that the public are entitled to know who is and who isn’t qualified. In order to be registered a hairdresser must have completed a four-

Hairdressers. year apprenticeship, a trade certificate, have a recognised overseas qualification, or eight continuous and approved years in the industry. It is the people who set themselves up as hairdressers on much more tenuous grounds who have invoked the ire of the profession. They are what has been called “the dickies of the trade.” They may have dropped out of an appren-

ticeship, completed a six month pre-apprenticeship course, or even set themselves up in business after a hobby course. N.B. The push is not against home hairdressers, some of whom are undoubtedly suitably qualified, it is against UNQUALIFIED hairdressers. New Zealand hairdressers can hold their own with the very best. Overseas stylists, usually courtesy of the hairdressing wholesaling companies, conduct frequent seminars and hair shows

here. They often remark oa the surprisingly high standards. So the customer is offered a world standard and that is what he or she will get if they attend a professionally qualified, and hopefully registered, New Zealand hairdresser. Look for the Guild of Professional Hairdressers logo, which is their seal of approval. Compiled by ROSALEEN McCarroll